The Ministry of Education has cancelled a planned event at a Nicosia primary school jointly held with the embassy of Israel following public outcry, Education Minister Athina Michaelidou told state radio on Friday.
The event will now be held at an alternative venue by the embassy without school participation, Michaelidou announced. She described public reactions to the planned school event as “understandable.”
Opposition party AKEL had called the planned event “shameful” and demanded its cancellation, describing it as co-organised by “the ministry of education and the embassy of the genocidal state of Israel.” The party said the event “offends the dignity of the Cypriot people and is causing more reactions every day.”
The controversy erupted after parents received a notice about the 17 June event, which was scheduled to coincide with Israeli Independence Day celebrations. Parents were informed that strong security measures would be in place, including “presence of official and plain clothes police, sniffer dogs, metal detectors” and that entrance would be limited to individuals completing an electronic form sent by the embassy.
The cancelled event was to present the first green roof installation at a public school, created by the Israeli embassy in cooperation with the Education Ministry. The Israeli embassy said the project reflected “shared commitment to education, sustainability, and community engagement, teaches climate responsibility and promotes urban innovation.”
Parents’ association representatives said they had been aware of the green roof donation project but not that its inauguration had been scheduled for the last day of school ahead of the project’s actual completion.
AKEL described the delegation of security for the event to the Israeli Embassy as “an unprecedented humiliation of the Cypriot state” and said Cyprus schools “are not for the teeth of Israeli propaganda.”
Michaelidou told state radio the government had communicated with the Foreign Ministry and considered that “a purely environmental and educational action should not be subject to political exploitation.”
The minister confirmed the embassy would proceed with the event independently at a different location, maintaining its planned June timeline whilst removing the educational institution component.
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